Dead child with crushed head, severed arm found at Eccles dumpsite
The body of the child found at the dumpsite
A garbage picker combing through the Haags Bosch Landfill at Eccles, East Bank Demerara on Friday at about 13:00h was shocked to discover the partially decomposed body of a child, which he had initially thought was a discarded doll.
Closer inspection caused him to realise he was staring at the remains of a boy believed to be only a few months old; who appeared to have suffered significant trauma, with his head and face crushed and his arm severed. He immediately alerted others on the scene, and the police were notified.
Speaking with Guyana Times later, he shared that the child seemed to have been of Amerindian descent. “He seemed like an Amerindian baby, and he looked around 7 to 9 months old, because the baby looked big. He did not have on any clothes, and was peeling and he was smelling slightly. When I saw the baby, it wasn’t a lot of garbage around him”, the man said.
He said the area where the body was discovered typically receives ‘fresh’ garbage only from garbage trucks, indicating that the remains of the child might have been recently discarded.
The area of the Haags Bosch Landfill where the child was found
“It has to be from a garbage truck, because garbage that was being pushed around that time was only from garbage trucks…I think it had to come today [Friday]”, the man has said.
He also shared that it might be difficult to determine which garbage truck had dumped the body, because the trucks are not monitored.
Reflecting on the traumatic experience, the garbage picker expressed deep shock, admitting that despite being trained to handle such situations, encountering a body was beyond anything he had imagined. He said it was shocking to him that anyone would want to dispose of their child in such a manner.
“When I saw it, I wanted to know what was going on, because I never seen a body since I worked here…when I saw the hair too, cause the child had a lot of hair, I was shocked”, the man said.
Following the harrowing find, the Guyana Police Force removed the child’s body to the Memorial Gardens Funeral Home for further examination.
Investigations into this matter are ongoing. (G9)
